2008 Draft

Dadonov is a very talented playmaking forward with great vision and creativity. He's small, like 5'9" 170, but he's absolutely fearless, he goes into the corners, drives the net, and even dishes out hits of his own to much bigger players. I really like his potential, he's coming to training camp this year but going back to Russia for one more year, then next camp I think he will have a good shot at making the team. Look at his numbers in the RSL, they are great for a player his age.

Matt Rust played for the US in this year's WJC. And he plays for Michigan and put up good numbers this year for a freshman, but probably the strength of his game is his faceoff prowess and his defensive shutdown ability.

John Lee made the USHL All Rookie first team this season. Little brother of Ottawa Senator John Lee, good bloodlines.

Cory Syvret is a very smooth skating, two-way defenseman that leans more toward offense. He played on the first PP unit with Drew Doughty this season on the Guelph Storm. He was the guy who often set up Doughty for shots, he's a slick passer. And he also has a good shot of his own. VERY GOOD 6th round pick. Also good bloodlines, his older brother is a Flyers' prospect who's seen some NHL games.

Ryan Watson is supposedly a hard working two-way, extremely tough forward. Forget which school he plays for. Put up OK numbers for a freshman in a defensive role. Maybe nothing to get excited about, but for a 6th rounder what I've heard about him is decent.

Sergei Gayduchenko is a mammoth sized goalie who has already done well in international competition and was a starter in the RSL at age 18. Drew praise from his coach early last year, his coach called him the best player on the team. Haven't followed his stats all the way through last season, will have to check on those sometime. He made the Russian WJC team this year, but didn't get into any games.

Wow. Thanks for the info. Sounds like they did a great job. You follow this very closely. Good job.

I don't like Swedes in general cause I really hate IKEA and I hate watching the Swedish hockey team, I'm not a fan of Sundin, Huselius or Eriksson and I just generally don't like the Red Wings. (every Swedish person I've met though has been really nice).

I just thought there were better players available than the Swedish goalie, like Robak. However since we ended up getting Robak anyways, then I'm happy with the goalie pick, since I would have been happy if our picks had been the other way around.

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but on the Panthers' website there is a video of the pre-draft meeting between the Panthers scouting department led by Scott Luce and Markstrom. It's really interesting because Luce seems really high on him. At one point he tells Markstrom he doesn't expect that he'll be there at 31, and asks Markstrom where he thinks the Panthers would have to trade up to in order to get him. Markstrom says he agent feels around 20. After Markstrom leaves Luce tells the rest of the guys in the room he has the ability to be an elite goalie in the NHL and despite what Markstrom says he doesn't think he'll last to 20. From that it would seem that the FO was probably doing backflips when he was there at 31. If you want to see the video it is in the Panthers in Depth section right below the headline section on the main page of the website.

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but on the Panthers' website there is a video of the pre-draft meeting between the Panthers scouting department led by Scott Luce and Markstrom. It's really interesting because Luce seems really high on him. At one point he tells Markstrom he doesn't expect that he'll be there at 31, and asks Markstrom where he thinks the Panthers would have to trade up to in order to get him. Markstrom says he agent feels around 20. After Markstrom leaves Luce tells the rest of the guys in the room he has the ability to be an elite goalie in the NHL and despite what Markstrom says he doesn't think he'll last to 20. From that it would seem that the FO was probably doing backflips when he was there at 31. If you want to see the video it is in the Panthers in Depth section right below the headline section on the main page of the website.

I think HF Radio had him at #15 in their mock draft, TSN had him somewhere in the #20's I believe. I'd seen him as the first goalie taken in a lot of mock drafts. He was always one of the top 5 goalies ranked by every scouting agency throughout the entire season, I'm not sure if any other goalie from the draft holds that distinction, actually. This kid could have easily gone in the top 20 IMO. That was the great thing about the depth of this draft. Robak could have easily been a first rounder as well IMO. I think we got a really good one in him too.